Stocks end lower as traders sell blue chips

NEW YORK — The stock market had its biggest decline in two weeks Tuesday, led by a sell-off in blue-chip bank and energy stocks. Homebuilders rose after the government reported sales of new homes rose in May to the highest level in six years.

The late-afternoon selling came during a relatively quiet week for Wall Street. Traders said the selling might be tied to large mutual funds having to rebalance their portfolios ahead of the end of the quarter next week. Other traders pointed to the ongoing violence in Iraq as a reason to pull out of the market ahead of the end of the quarter.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 119.13 points, or 0.7 percent, to 16,818.13. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 12.63 points, or 0.6 percent, to 1,949.98 and the Nasdaq composite fell 18.32 points, or 0.4 percent, to 4,350.36.